Scott Harris wants players to know they can come to Detroit and get better. Michael Lorenzen got the message.
"Scott did a really good job of calling me and hounding my agent about making me a Detroit Tiger," Lorenzen said with a smile after officially signing a one-year, $8.5 million deal with the Tigers on Tuesday. "The plans that he has for me and this organization, he sold me. I like to look at big-picture things. I like to make sure the organization is going in the right direction.
"And him coming from San Francisco and what they've built over there, I see the vision and what he's trying to create here and I want to be a part of it."
The vision Harris has for the Tigers is one of sustainable success. That's the long view. More immediately, Harris is trying to stabilize a club that took a big step back last season in a grueling rebuild, partly because its pitching staff collapsed. And he's confident Lorenzen can help stabilize the rotation.
"We believe that the quickest way to stabilize a team is to build a collection of starters who give you a chance to win every night and build a defense behind those starters who catch the ball every night," Harris said. "This is a step in that direction."
Lorenzen, 30, is an eight-year vet, but he hasn't been a starter for long. Last season was his first working in the rotation since his rookie season, and he finished with a flourish. After recovering from a shoulder strain and developing a "better routine to be able to take the ball every fifth day," Lorenzen said, he posted a 2.36 ERA, .161 batting average against and more than a strikeout per inning in his final five starts. He said getting healthy allowed him to raise his arm slot back to its natural position. The results followed.
"I've always wanted to start when I was in the bullpen," Lorenzen said. "I knew there was stuff to learn and it was going to take reps to learn that, and I felt like I got those reps last year out of the rotation. I learned a ton and was able to put it in play there at the end."
For Lorenzen, finding a team where he could pitch out of the rotation was the
"No. 1 priority" in free agency. He said he's always believed he "had the pitch profile to be a starter," and he proved that to himself at the end of last season. Lorenzen said he "started reading hitters and playing the game within the game a little more" to use his four-pitch mix to his advantage.
Now he's aiming to build on that progress with an innovative coaching staff in Detroit, led on the pitching side by Chris Fetter and the recently-hired Robin Lund, the latter a former kinesiology professor who recently helped turn the University of Iowa into a pitching factory.
"Baseball is in a spot where some organizations are a little behind and some organizations are leading the way, and I think Detroit is going to get to the point to where they're leading the way," said Lorenzen. "You can see that with the coaching staff they've assembled and with Scott coming over from San Fran.
"For me, that's exactly where I want to be. I'm all about a growth mindset, getting better, so I want a group of coaches around me that are going to support me in that pursuit. I feel like this coaching staff is definitely going to be able to do that."
Harris said the Tigers were drawn to Lorenzen for a few reasons, first because he's a "double-plus athlete." Such athleticism allows him to make adjustments on the mound more quickly than most other pitchers. And second, "Michael can get outs in variety of ways," said Harris, from missing bats to inducing soft contact.
"He does a lot of the things that we value in this organization, but we think there's more in there," Harris said. "We think he's just scratching the surface as a starter. We think he can get better, I know Michael thinks he can get better."
"We had a long conversation about pitching and talked about how he sees himself as a pitcher and how we see him as a pitcher, and I was struck by the alignment between our two visions."
Lorenzen, in Harris' words, is the second starter "with tremendous upside" the Tigers have signed this offseason, joining Matthew Boyd. The two of them will likely team up with Eduardo Rodriguez at the top of Detroit's rotation. And with Spencer Turnbull returning from Tommy John, Harris said the Tigers "feel like we added three quality starters."
"And we feel great that this coaching staff is going to get the absolute most out of them," he said.
It's a good match between a pitcher who believes he can be a starter and a team that needs starting pitching. Between a veteran with plenty to prove and an organization with plenty of room to grow. Between a player and a coaching staff with a shared vision for improvement.
And, if Lorenzen is being honest, between a pitcher and a ballpark. He laughed and said pitching in Comerica was "one of Scott's selling points for sure."
"We're hoping those three-run homers stay in this year, and that's a big deal: nice and cold, big ballpark, doesn't sound fun for hitters," he said. "So I want to be a part of it."
